


Wait...Humans Need Air, Right? (Merstuck! DirkJake fanfiction)

by Closeted_Calliope



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Merstuck! AU, dont own homestuck blah blah blah, with the exception of DirkJake and JadeDave all the ships won't really appear that much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:14:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5421770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Closeted_Calliope/pseuds/Closeted_Calliope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When 16 year old Jake English moves from his small island to a small beach on the west coast, he expects nothing but boredom and less adventure than he'd like. But after being saved from drowning by a mysterious person, he learns that there's a bigger adventure than he ever could've imagined. </p><p>(This is just a little DirkJake fanfiction that I've had in my mind for a while. It's based off tumblr user Ikimaru's merstuck drawings. (They're so fucking good.). There will probably be some OOCness, so be warned. Also, sorry for the shitty description. Merstuck!AU)</p><p>(Keep in mind that I am not Andrew Hussie, therefore I do not own any characters. If I owned any of them, I probably wouldn't be writing a fanfic, would I?)</p><p>(One final thing, I posted this to my Wattpad first (Closeted_Calliope), so if you see it there, don't worry! It's not stolen!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Goodbye Island, Hello Beach House

Jake English stared out the window of the large van and sighed heavily. The van, which had huge bright green letters reading, "Felt's Moving Co." written on the side, was holding Jake, his sister, Jade, his grandma, their dog, Becquerel, and one of the fifteen movers that were helping them move. The other fourteen were crammed into 2 other moving trucks behind them.

For all of their life, Jake, who was sixteen, and Jade, who was thirteen, had lived happily on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with their grandma. But, about a month earlier, Grandma had sat them down and said that they were moving to a small town on the west coast of the U.S. She said she wanted them to make friends and not be so isolated from the rest of the worldJade was overjoyed at the idea of going to a new place, but Jake wasn't quite sure.

"We're moving?" He had asked. "Just like that? But we've lived here our whole lives! And we're just going to throw it all away?"

Grandma had reassured him that they would be going back to the island a few times a year, to check up on their old house and maybe explore for a bit. But Jake still wasn't entirely convinced that this move was going to be a good thing. He was nearly certain that this new place would be more boring than watching paint dry for an hour.

Within the month, they had packed up all their stuff, gotten on a plane to the states (on which Jake threw up seven times), and were currently driving in the moving van to their new house. Grandma had gotten a great deal on "a quaint little residence next to a gorgeous beach," as the website she had found it on said. Jake was fairly certain that, because the internet tended to lie, that the house was going to be awful.

It wasn't long before the van pulled into the driveway of a house that actually looked quite pleasant. Jake and Jade stepped out onto the asphalt driveway, staring at their new home, while Grandma talked with their driver. It was dark tan with lots of white accents, like on the shutters and the door. It had two floors (and possibly a basement), the roof was shingled and deep brown, and there was a small fenced-in porch with an umbrella table and a rocking chair, though that was probably the only piece of furniture in the house. And, just behind it, there was a seemingly endless view of the beach which was simply breathtaking.

Jake gazed, awestruck, by the oceanic scene. He muttered, "Golly...."

"JAKE!!"

Jake snapped out of his thoughts and stared at his sister. She crossed her arms. "Aren't you supposed to helping the moving guys bring all the boxes into the house?"

He smirked. "Yes, but so are you," he replied, his thick British accent brushing off each word as he spoke it.

Jade sighed. "Fiiiiiine." She, unlike her brother, had no accent.

This was because Jake had been adopted from a young age. Jade's mom had died in childbirth, and her Grandma was feeling like something was missing, so she went to the states, searching for someone else. And then she found an orphaned three year old Jake, sitting on a curb, abandoned by his parents. She took him back to her island and raised him and Jade as her own. As Jake grew, his accent stayed with him, and no one really questioned it. They did sometimes fight, but for the most part, they got along well.

The brother and sister walked around to the back of the truck and helped the movers, whom all had a tattoo of a different pool ball on each of their right shoulders, bring boxes into the house. It took two hours, but they eventually got everything out of the trucks. Grandma payed Ms. Snowman, a woman with dark skin, black hair, and a tattoo of an 8 ball on her shoulder, and the movers left.

Then the unpacking began.

Between the three of them, with Jade and Jake doing most of the work, the English-Harleys unpacked a majority of their belongings, and it wasn't even 4:30 in the afternoon yet. Seeing the tiredness of her grandchildren, Grandma told them, "Why don't you two take a break? Maybe you could explore the beach."

Jade politely declined her, but Jake was already out the front door before she had even finished her sentence. He ran onto the sand and down the strip of beach, grinning and panting. It wasn't long before he slowed down and collapsed into the sand, not caring that sand was getting everywhere.

 _Okay_ , he thought, lifting himself out of the sand, _where do I go now?_

He looked at his surroundings, only seeing sand and ocean and- _Oh hey, a cave!_ He thought excitedly. And indeed, about thirty yards away, there was a cave. Jake ran over to it, covered in sand, sweat, and a thirst for adventure. When he reached the mouth of the cave, he poked his head in and muttered, "Gadzooks..."

The inside of the cave was huge, with an enormous opening that led to a small lagoon, which connected to the ocean. Beautiful stalactites hung from the ceiling, and there was a small cliff, where if you jumped off, you would land in the lagoon.

Jake stood there for a few minutes, amazed. Eventually he decided to explore the cave a little more. He walked over to the cliff. There were lots of holes in the wall leading up to it. Taking a deep breath, he used the holes as hand-grabs, and began to climb.

One thing that didn't help was the fact that the sea was spraying water all over him every couple seconds, making the wall slippery as fuck. Nearly slipping a few times, he finally made it to the cliff, pulling himself up and sitting on the edge, staring out at the ocean.

It was beautiful.

And peaceful.

Jake looked out onto the limitless body of blue, thinking of his island. He knew they would be going back, but he didn't know when that would be. He remembered all the fun times they had had there; discovering old ruins, escaping the clutches of wild animals, playing with Bec, all sorts of fun stuff. His gaze wandered into the lagoon.

It looked pretty deep. He wondered if when he jumped in, he could reach the bottom. Jake smirked, and decided to figure that out.

He stood up, stripped off his shirt, carefully placed his glasses down, and kicked off his boots. He peered over the edge of the cliff, making sure he could land in the lagoon. When he was confident he could, he took a couple of steps back, made a running start, and jumped off the cliff into the water.

The ocean was _freezing_.

Jake waited until the bubbles around him faded away, then opened his eyes. The salty water stung them a little, but he didn't care. He looked around, taking in his surroundings.

Colorful coral decorated the rocks around him. A rainbow of assorted fish swam around him. And below him, about twenty five feet or so down, a wide variety of sea sponges and crabs thrived. Smiling, Jake began to swim downwards.

About ten feet down, he began to feel the pressure around him building.

Fifteen feet down, his head began to hurt.

At twenty feet down, only five feet from the bottom, his lungs began to burn.He had nearly forgotten that he needed air.

 _C'mon_ , he thought, forcing his body down. _Just a little more...._

At only one foot to go, Jake suddenly coughed. Water flowed into his mouth.

 _Frig_! He thought. He tried to swim up, but then he realized he had no idea where **up** was. He began to panic, his lungs feeling as though they were going to collapse.

 _So this is it_ , he realized. _This is how I'm going to die. And I never even got to tell them goodb-GOOD GRAVY!!!!_

A pair of arms wrapped around his waist and dragged him in a direction that was probably up. Within seconds, the coldness of the water was replaced by the heat of the beach air, and the arms released him. Jake spit the water out of his mouth and took a huge gulp of air, then proceeded to cough loudly for a few moments. When he had calmed down, he decided to thank the kind person who had saved him.

But when Jake turned around, there was no one there. "Hello?" He called out. He looked into the water below, finding no one still. He pulled himself out of the water and wandered around the cave for a bit. Nobody.

Sighing, a bit disappointed, he climbed back up the cliff the get his clothes. The sun was beginning to set, causing the sky to become a mixture of pinks and oranges. Jake had pulled his shirt on, returned his glasses to his face, and was tying his boot laces when he noticed something far out into the ocean.

A tiny sliver of something orange, most likely a tail, slipped out from the ocean and slunk back in just as quickly as it came. Jake stared for a few minutes after it had left, seeing if it would come back. When he was certain it wouldn't, he finished tying up his boot and climbed down. He reluctantly left the cave and looked around for that orange thing.

 _What the hell could it possibly be?_ He wondered as he jogged down the beach back to his new house. He was greeted by his sister and Grandma, who had just finished making dinner.

 _Was it a sea creature_? He pondered as he ate dinner with his family. When he was done, he excuses himself from the table and went to the bathroom. As he stripped down and showered, he thought about the orange thing again.

 _Was it a broken pool toy someone had brought to the beach?_ He considered as he wrapped a towel around his waist and headed into his room, identified by a small piece of paper taped to the door with "Jake" scribbled on in dark green pen.

His room was, so far, just a mattress, a blanket, and a pillow in the middle of the room, surrounded by several stacks of boxes. Sighing, Jake walked over to a box marked "Clothes" and pulled out a clean pair of boxers. After pulling them on, he lied down on the mattress, pulled the blanket over him, placed his glasses in the floor next to yhe mattress, and set his head on the pillow, exhausted from the long day.

And as he drifted off into a restless sleep, he thought, _Or was it something else?_


	2. Meanwhile in the Ocean....

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we gain a new perspective of things, Karkat does not appear (there was a lot of confusion on wattpad) and I make a reference most of you will get.

Dirk Strider was a merman. If you were to call him a mermaid, he probably would try to drown you. He didn't get what was so hard to understand; mermaids were girls, mermen were dudes, end of the fucking story.

Anyway, Dirk Strider was not only a merman, but her was a merman in a fuck-ton of trouble. Why? He may or may not have started a fight with another merman, whom was stealing from an elderly mermaid. Seriously, a majority of merpeople were real assholes.

He, as well as the thief, were currently being escorted by guards to the castle of Her Imperious Condescension, the Queen of the ocean. That wouldn't seem so bad, if the Condesce wasn't a real bitch who believed everyone was below her, partially because they were, and if she didn't have a tendency to kill a majority of the merpeople who entered the castle.

Dirk sighed heavily. Although the Condesce could be negotiated with, it was extremely difficult to do so. He just hoped Feferi was there to help him out a bit. 

Dirk was friends with the Condesce's daughter, Feferi, who was much nicer and never really tried to kill people. She usually was able to get her mom to not kill people she thought were innocent, though she did occasionally fail to be convincing enough. 

A heavy shove from one of the guards broke Dirk from his thoughts. "Alright, alright, I'm going," he muttered irritatedly, adjusting his shades (which he had found on the sea floor one day many years before) as the castle came into view. He gulped a little in nervousness. 

_What if Feferi isn't there?_ He thought as some more guards pushed the large castle doors open, leading to a long hallway which probably led to the Condesce's throne room. _Or if she is, what if she can't get me out of this mess? What would happen to Dave?_

Dave was Dirk's thirteen year old brother, who made awful music with him and also wore shades he found, but for a different reason. (He claimed they were to be ironic, but in reality, he didn't want to show anyone his weird red eyes.) Although he was pretty tough, there was no way he would be able to survive on his own.

Dirk's thoughts were interrupted once again by the doors to the throne room being opened loudly. In the middle-back part of the room, stood a huge fuchsia throne, covered in black decal, and a similar one on the right, only much smaller. In the large throne sat a large mermaid with a fuck-ton of thick, curly blonde hair, a thick dark fuchsia tail, a simple black top, and a smirk painted upon her face. The smaller throne sat Princess Feferi, who looked a lot like her mother, only she was smaller, wore a black choker necklace with a seahorse pendant on it, and had an overall more cheery appearance.

"Well, well, well," the Condesce said slyly, "what have we here?"

One of the guards spoke harshly, "Your Highness, these two were fighting and causing a ruckus in from of elderly merfolk." He then proceeded to explain more thoroughly what had happened, according to an eye witness; Dirk was swimming past a group of people, mainly elderly mermaids, but that was nothing particularly suspicious. Then, the thief had swam over, and inconspicuously snatched a few sand-dollars from one of the old mermaids' purses. She didn't seem to notice, but Dirk did, and called out the thief. The thief tried to deny it, but Dirk wouldn't buy it, and tried to retrieve the stolen money. The other guy then punched Dirk in the face, and a fight sprung up. By some fucking miracle, when the guards finally pulled them apart, Dirk was barely injured, aside from a few scratches, but the other guy had a black eye and a slightly bloody nose, as well as several bruises.

When the guard had finally finished talking, the Condesce turned to Dirk, causing a shiver of fear to go down his spine. 

"Is this true?" She asked sweetly, although anyone with ears could hear the slight snarkiness behind it.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Dirk answered, struggling to keep his poker face on. He couldn't help but think over and over, _Please don't make this a death sentence, please don't make this a death sentence._ He barely noticed the thief, whose tail was an unusual grey color, give an answer to the Queen's question.

He finally broke out of his thoughts when the Condesce spoke out again.

"I have come to a decision."

Both Dirk and the other merman stared at her worriedly, fearing for their lives.

"You, the merman with the grey tail, swim forward."

The merman obeyed nervously.

"You have been charged with the crime of theft, and the penalty, as you know, is death. Guards, take him away." With a flick of her wrist, another pair of guards came and harshly grabbed the merman. 

"W-what? Wait, Y-your majesty, please n-no!!!" The poor merman cried as the guards carried him off. Dirk watched as the ashen-tailed thief was dragged away, crying hysterically. He couldn't help but feel bad for him, but there was nothing he could do for him. If he spoke out, he would have an even less likely chance of living, because the penalty for speaking out against royalty was also death. 

The Condesce turned her attention back to Dirk. "Merman with the orange tail, swim forward, please."

Dirk obeyed silently, fear rising in his chest.

"You had started a fight with another merperson, and as you know, the penalty is death.."

 _What a motherfucking surprise, I had no fucking idea,_ Dirk thought, not daring to say it aloud and win the same fate as the other guy. He listened as the Queen continued.

"...however, I have been convinced by my daughter that you were merely helping the elderly, so I am willing to let you off the hook." The Condesce sounded slightly irritated, as though she wanted blood to be shed. Feferi, on the other hand, grinned proudly, happy she was able to save her friend. 

Dirk sighed in relief. "Thank you for you mercy, Your Majesty," he said, bowing a little.

"Yeah, yeah, just get out before I change my mind," she replied, kinda pissed off. She **really** enjoyed killing people.

The guards that had led him in escorted him out, and the moment the front doors opened in front of him, he bolted away, happy to be able to leave with his life. 

His shades nearly fell off a few times, so he simply held them as he swam to the lagoon, the one that led to an above-water cave. It was really awesome and relaxing, and he really needed a moment to clear his head. After all, having a near-death experience with the Queen could put quite a bit of stress on a guy. The lagoon, though filled with natural beauty, was a very dangerous place to be. 

Why? It was so close to where the humans lived. 

Dirk didn't have to listen to the warnings they gave ("they" being royal guards) pretty much every day to know that humans were dangerous. They caused oils spills and left their fishing nets in the water for merpeople to get caught in. Fortunately, Dirk hadn't personally been a part of either of these events, though word got around quickly under the sea. Some humans were insane enough to try and hunt merfolk for their tails and stuff, but fortunately, no one had ever been caught. Yet.

Dirk had made it to the lagoon and was about to swim up to the surface when he noticed something moving above the water. _A human?_ He wondered. _Well, better safe than sorry._ He hid behind a small wall of coral that matched his pale blond hair and peered over the edge.

A cloud of bubbles formed as the human jumped into the water. As the bubbles faded, Dirk was given a clearer view of it.

It was a guy, and, Dirk had to be honest, a pretty cute one, too. He had wavy black locks that looked weightless underwater, tan skin, and although it was hard to see, shining emerald green eyes. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of beige shorts, and Dirk couldn't help staring at his abs.

The human looked in his direction, and Dirk quickly ducked out of sight, hoping he hadn't been seen. When he was sure the coast was clear, he slowly peered over the edge of the wall. The cute human was swimming downward, probably trying to reach the bottom. He was almost at the bottom, when suddenly he froze for a moment, and began thrashing wildly.

Dirk was confused at first, but then an important thought came to his mind.

_Wait....humans need air...right?_

Before he could fully register what he had done, Dirk had snuck up behind the airless human and was dragging him upwards. Once he realized what he was doing, he took in a sharp breath of water but kept going. He didn't want to be seen by the human (punishable by death), but he didn't want to just let him drown.

The moment the two reached the surface, the human began coughing heavily. Dirk sighed in relief: he could breathe. He wouldn't have been coughing if he couldn't breathe. Without a noise, Dirk dove back into the water and swam away from the lagoon as fast as he could. 

He noticed, as he was swimming away, that he had left his shades back there. He turned to go back for them, but realized that the human was probably still there. He also noticed how closely to the surface he was swimming. He quickly dove down deeper, hoping no one had noticed him. 

It didn't take long for Dirk to reach the cave he and his brother called "home". When he entered, Dave floated in front of him, glaring at him. "Where the hell were you?"

"I got a bit caught up," Dirk replied, swimming over to their food supply, which was a bunch of dead, raw fish. Dave came over and picked up a fish, taking a bite out of it. 

With a mouth full of fish, he asked, "With what?" 

"None of your business," Dirk replied in an annoyed tone, biting the head off a fish. _Bluh,_ he thought, _still tastes like shit._

Dave gave him a suspicious stare, but pushed no further. 

Soon, both boys had finished their fish and headed off to bed, which was just the floor with a rock as a pillow. Both boys lied down on the ground, and fell asleep (after only 30 minutes of trying to get comfortable). 

And as the weariness of the day finally brought him to a peaceful sleep, Dirk's last thoughts were, _I hope no one saw me...._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo!!!!! This is CC, and I hope you all like the second chapter. YAY!! MERPEOPLE!!! Anyway, I know that this was just a teeny bit boring, but trust me, next chapter, things are going to get interesting... ;) So stay tuned for another chapter of my awful dirkjake fanfic coming soon!!! (Or not. Probably soon, though) PCHOOOOO!!!!!
> 
> (I know, my old self was so annoying. Again, I copypasted the AN from wattpad and I hope you guys liked the fact that I ACTUALLY UPDATED. now this is the third time I've had to type this because I had to upload this manually in the Google app from the wattpad app and Google has a shitty app that keeps deleting my stuff. But that last part only made sense to me so whatever ignore that. See you guys later.) 
> 
> -CC


	3. Holy. Fucking. Mackerel.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jake makes an interesting discovery that changes everything (or something cliche like that)

"JAAAAAKE!!! BREAKFAST!!!!"

Jake awoke with a start and nearly fell off the bed. Luckily, he managed to stop himself at the edge, saving his glasses from getting crushed by his body weight.

He waited for a moment, needing to catch his breath for a moment. When he was sure he was fine, he sat up, put on his glasses, and checked his surroundings. He was a bit confused for a moment, not remembering where exactly he was. And then he remembered; He was at the new house.

Mentally slapping himself for being so stupid, he got up and trudged over to the box marked "Clothes". He pulled out a pair of beige shorts (90% of his shorts were beige), a white t-shirt with a green skull on it (most of his shirts had green skulls on them) and a green shirt he tended to wear over another shirt because it made him feel like an adventurer. And if there was one thing Jake English loved, it was adventure.

He absently walked down the stairs, remembering some of his old adventures back on the island, and had entered the kitchen before he knew it, where is grandma was cooking bacon. _Hmm,_ he thought,> _Grandma must've bought food. Well, that would explain why we didn't just order a pizza or something._

Grandma looked over from her cooking and smiled warmly. "Good morning, Jake, would you like some breakfast? I'm just finishing up now."

Jake grinned. "Thanks, Grandma. That is quite thoughtful of you." He paused for a moment. "Where are the plates again?"

"In the box marked, 'Plates & Silverware'."

He slid over to the box and rummaged around for a while, eventually pulling out a plate, a fork, and a knife. He then noticed the many plates lining the edge of the counter. One was filled with pancakes, another with eggs, and yet another with sausages and bacon. As he began to pile his plate up with food, Jade walked in, wearing a long-sleeved shirt with an atom on it and a long white skirt. Her long, black hair was wet and slightly dripping, so Jake figured she had just taken a shower.

Upon seeing her brother, Jade grinned. "Good morning, Jake! Sleep well?"

"Good morning, Jade. Yes, quite soundly. Would you like me to get you some breakfast?"

"Jake, I'd love some, but I'm pretty sure I'm fully capable of getting my own breakfast," Jade giggled, grabbing a plate, a knife, and a fork from the box and began pilling up food as Jake finished with his. 

He brought his plate over to a table that was set in the middle of the dining room, though there were no chairs at it. Hmm, I guess they never unpacked the chairs yesterday while I was gone, Jake thought as he sat on the floor under the table (because he felt like it; it seemed logical to him) and ate silently.

About halfway through a pancake, Bec padded over and began to sniff the food. Jake narrowed his eyes at the white-furred dog and shoved him away.

"No, Bec, this is my food."

No sooner than he had been pushed away did Bec return and tried to snag a piece of bacon. Again, Jake had to push him away, telling him, "NO, Bec. This is MY FOOD, not BEC'S FOOD, OKAY?"

Bec sat right beside him, making his lime green eyes huge and puppy-like. The adventurer teen tried to ignore him, but was soon convinced. Sighing, Jake removed a piece of bacon from his plate and held it out to the dog.

"Fine, if you insist, you old mutt."

Bec snatched the bacon from his hand and trotted off happily. Watching the smug dog walk away, he stabbed his fork into some pancake, muttering under his breath, "Egad! All that malarkey for a piece of friggin' bacon..."

Not wanting any more 'thieves' stealing his food, Jake quickly scarfed down the rest of his food and tried to get up. Unfortunately, he had forgotten he was under the table, and smacked his head on the bottom of it.

A cry of "JESUS CHRISTOFER KRINGLEFUCKER!!!!" echoed throughout the house. Grandma wasn't too spiteful of cursing, but nevertheless, she ran down the stairs as fast as her old legs would go, nearly tripping down them a few times (she had been warned about them several times), and raced into the dining room, where Jade and Bec had also ran to see what the hell was going on. They all found Jake curled into a ball under the table, clutching his head and rocking back and forth a little, muttering, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuuuck."

Jade crawled underneath the table, scooted over to her adoptive brother, and, placing a hand on his shoulder, asked, "What happened, Jake?"

"I was eating under here, but I forgot I was under a table, so when I went to stand up..." He trailed off, still grasping his head.

"You slammed your head against the bottom of the table," Jade finished for him.

Jake nodded ashamedly, and slowly crawled out from under the table, Jade following in suit. No sooner than had he just stood up, a bit wobbly, did Grandma wrap her arms protectively around her grandson.

"Jake, are you okay? Did you get a concussion?" She fussed, feeling around his head for a bump or something. 

Jake smiled a little and pushed her hands away. "Grandma, I'm fine."

"Fine enough to go adventuring?"

"Grandma, even if I wasn't fine enough, I would still go adventuring. But yes, I legitimately am fine. One might even go so far to say that I am in top notch condition."

"Well," Grandma started, pretty convinced her grandson was fine as she pulled away, "if you say so."

"I don't know about you two," Jade butted in, "but I'm going outside to play with Bec. Do either of you want to join me?"

Grandma replied, "No thank you, dear. I was planning to go out into the town and maybe meet some new people!"

Jake added, "And I would like to continue the adventure I started yesterday!" _I wonder if I'll see the orange thing again,_ he wondered in his mind, not really sure he wanted his family the know.

"Well, alright then. We'll be outside, then." Jade whistled to Bec and he followed her out the door, and she called out one last, "Bye!!!" before closing the door.

"I suppose now would be a good a time as any to head out," Jake said, filling the short silence. "Bye, Grandma!!" He began to head for the door.

"Oh, before you go Jake!!"

"Hmm?" He spun around at the sound of his Grandma's voice.

Grandma walked over to a box and pulled a few things out: a small army knife, and a pair of pistols. _Jake's_ pair of pistols. Upon seeing them, Jake's face broke into a huge grin and he ran over to the box and held them in his hands, enjoying the familiarity they brought.

He asked incredulously, "How did you get these here? I thought you said I wasn't going to be able to use them here!!!"

Grandma smiled warmly. "I talked to the police on the phone yesterday, and they stated that, as long as you don't threaten people and you keep the safety on, you would be able to carry them with you. They also said that you had to keep them hidden from the public, as some people might feel threatened or think it's fine for them to also carry guns. But other than that, you have been permitted to have your guns. Oh, and as for that knife, it's for you. May it aid you well on your adventures."

Jake could barely contain his excitement for the guns, and squeezed his arms around his Grandma. "Thank you so friggin' much!!!"

"No problem, dear. Now, your adventure awaits," she told him, pulling his old holster out of the box as well. 

Jake put it on. His green shirt was able to cover most of it, and what little part was revealed looked kinda like a belt, so his firearms would be well concealed. He shoved his new knife into his pocket and the guns into the holster. Grinning excitedly, he gave Grandma a quick peck on the cheek, muttered, "Bye!!!", and raced out the door and onto the beach.

Jake sprinted down the long strip of beach, looking for the cave. _C'mon, c'mon, where is that blasted ca- EUREKA!!! There we go._

The moment he spotted the cave, he ran even faster, wanting to get on with his adventure. He slowed down a couple feet from the entrance and walked the rest of the way, breathing heavily. But before he could even enter, Jake could vaguely hear a weird noise coming from inside.

Cautious and curious, Jake slowly entered the cave, hands on his pistols. As he got closer to the noise, he noticed it sounded like some one was.....grunting??

_PLEASE tell me there aren't some weirdos having sex in my cave or something, Jake hoped. Because if there are, I'm going to have abandon this cave and find a new place to explo-_

_HOLY._

_FUCKING._

_MACKEREL._

Jake stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the lagoon. There was something struggling near a couple of rocks. As he got closer, he noticed that the something was actually a someone. 

A boy, about Jake's age, was trapped inside a large fishing net, which had caught on the rocks. He was wearing pointy anime shades and a shark tooth necklace, but the reason Jake found him so astonishing was his legs.

He didn't have any legs.

Instead, he had a beautiful, shimmering orange tail, and it was horrendously snagged in the net. The boy continued to struggle, looking distraught.

Jake stared at him incredulously and whispered, barely above a breath, 

"A merman...."

And just as Jake noticed the boy's ears, which had little fins at the edges, they twitched a little and the boy turned to look at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo!!!! I hope you all enjoyed the third chapter of my story!!! Yes, I did leave you all with a little bit of a cliffhanger, but hey, at least we all know that Dirk and Jake are about to meet!!! *squeals and fangirls a bit, even though she is the one writing the goddamn story* I am currently working on the fourth chapter, so until next time, my good readers. PCHOOOOO!!!!
> 
> (Jesus was I always this cringey? One more thing, I've been thing about doing a Camp Camp fic (if you like gory stuff/innuendo/ foul mouthed children then you'll love it. Look it up on YouTube it's by rooster teeth.) any thoughts? see you guys next time.)
> 
> -CC


	4. OH SHIT IM SCREWED

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we once again see things from Dirk's perspective and our main characters interact for the first time.

"Goddammit."

Dirk face-palmed in utter disgust of himself for letting this happen. This was the most unfortunate, ironic, and absolute DUMBEST thing he could have possibly done.  
He had gotten stuck in a motherfucking FISHING NET. 

_Yeah, yeah, I'm half fish and I get stuck in a fishing net. Stupid fucking Mother Nature and her shitty sense of humor,_ Dirk thought angrily as he tried to free himself. _Why did I have to be an idiot and leave my shades here?_

A while before, Dirk had left his cave to retrieve his shades from the lagoon. He wanted it to be fast and easy, and it would've been, if he had actually been watching where he was going...

It hadn't taken him long to find his shades. They were resting on a couple of colorful sea sponges at the bottom of the lagoon. Smiling, he had swam down to them and put them on, feeling a slight sense of relief that they weren't broken or stolen. Absentmindedly, he slicked his hair back, even though he knew that it would just float back into place due to being submerged in water, and tried to swim upwards.

Unfortunately, while he was distracted, his tail had gotten caught on a fishing net, which must've been floating by, making it a hassle to swim. Rolling his eyes, Dirk slowly swam up, trying not to get even more tangled than he already was.

His eyes peered over the surface of the water, making sure there were no humans nearby. Having made sure there were none, Dirk slowly made his way over to the edge of the lagoon, where a bunch of rocks stood. _Maybe...I can use the rocks to set myself free?_ He wondered as he threw a length of the net over a particularly sharp looking rock. He pulled, figuring the rope would get cut.

It turns out, the rope was made out of some sort of really strong material, so all the pulling and tugging in the world (about 45 minutes of it, in Dirk's case) wouldn't break it.

Getting really fucking aggravated, Dirk groaned in frustration and tried to remove the rope. But the rope was stuck, caught inside one of he many cracks in the rock.

Dirk completely lost his patience. He began to flail around wildly, trying to loosen up the ropes. Not only did they get even tighter, but he also managed to get the rest of himself caught up in the net. This only made him angrier, and he refused to stop for a good 10 minutes.

Eventually, Dirk managed to calm himself down and was able to analyze the issue at hand. Several thick ropes were wrapped around his tail, and they were so tight, there was a little bit of blood coming from a few places. In his little temper tantrum, he had gotten a large portion of the net wrapped around his torso, trapping his left arm to his side. And his shades were hanging off a little bit of net in front of him.

Dirk sighed. It was time to get serious here. 

With his free arm, he grabbed the shades and slid them into his face, a wave of familiarity washing over him. He then proceeded to shift around a bit, soon freeing his other arm.

Then the 'getting-his-torso-and-tail-free' part came. 

Dirk sighed again. This wasn't going to be easy.

He tried to push himself out, grunting. He could barely move in the net, and from his position, he couldn't tell if he'd made any progress. He'd been working for not even half a minute when he heard something to his side. He wasn't able to make out the exact words, but his ears twitched regardless and he turned his head to face the maker of the noise.

Upon seeing it, Dirk's jaw dropped slightly and his body tensed up.

It was the human he had saved the day before.

At first glance, Dirk almost hadn't recognized him, but the moment he saw his piercing green eyes, he knew it for a fact. The human was wearing beige shorts again, but this time he had a shirt on,a white one with a green skull on it, as well as a green shirt that went over the white one. He had on shoes of some sort, though Dirk didn't know what they were called, because 1) he didn't have any feet, and 2) the beach goers never wore anything other than flip-flops, sandals, and the occasional sneakers. He also had glasses, with rectangular frames, something he hadn't had underwater the day before, for obvious reasons; his glasses probably couldn't handle water like Dirk's could. 

Dirk couldn't take his eyes off of him, partially because he was kinda cute, partially because he was relieved that it was him and not someone else, and partially because he was surprised, but mainly because he was scared and was frozen with fear, unable to move. Apparently, the human was surprised, too, because he stood there, jaw dropped, eyes wide, not moving.

They both stood there for a few minutes, staring at each other in shock, neither saying a word. Until, after a few minutes of silence, the human spoke.

"W-would you, um, like some help?"

 _HOLY SHIT, HE HAS A HOT ACCENT,_ Dirk's mind yelled at him. He brushed his thoughts away and,worried of saying something stupid, managed a small nod. 

Smiling awkwardly, the human removed his shoes and shirts, revealing a peculiar belt that held two odd-looking things which Dirk could not recognize. The human took off the weird belt and shoved it under his shirts. Dirk concluded that they weren't supposed to be seen and were probably dangerous. But he didn't let that distract him that much- _OH MY GOD HE HAS A KNIFE. HE IS GOING TO KILL ME,_ Dirk thought as he tried to back away from the human, who had just pulled out a small army knife.

"Woah, calm down," the human was saying, but he knew better than to trust a human, and got himself as far as possible, which, in reality, wasn't all that far, away from the human. Dirk expected him to get impatient, to start trying to free him, or trying to kill him, whichever this human wanted. But to his surprise, the human pocketed the knife, sat at the edge of the water, and crossed his arms. 

"Until you are ready to trust me, I am just going to sit here and wait. Let me know when you want me to help you, Mr. Merman."

Dirk stared at him in shock. All his life, he had been told that humans were dangerous, and if they caught you, they wouldn't hesitate to kill you. Or if they didn't, they would take you and sell you to the highest bidder. But this one not only let him live, but also was willing to wait until he consented. 

He still didn't know what the human wanted; to free him, to kill him, to kidnap him and sell him to some wealthy old guy. But, although he was nervous, he slowly gave a slight nod, hoping the human would notice.

He did. "You're ready to trust me?" He slowly moved himself into the water, pulling out the knife. 

Dirk nodded again, more noticeably this time. _This is a bad idea,_ he thought, having second thoughts on his decision. But it wasn't like there was any way out of this by now.  
The human swam over, holding the knife above the water, probably so it wouldn't rust. Dirk watched as he came closer, until he reached the rock and him. He was now able to get a better look at the human than before.

And SWEET MOTHER OF GOD, HE WAS HOT. 

Of course, Dirk was just pointing out that he was hot, not implying that he had a 'thing' for the the human. Because that would be weird.

He, 'he' being the human, grabbed one of the many ropes and began to saw through it. The ropes were pretty fucking thick, so it took awhile, but eventually, the rope was cut, and Dirk was able to move his tail a little.

The human laughed with a hint of nervousness in his voice. "Oh dear, it seems that this is going to take a while. Maybe....we could chat to pass the time?" He quickly added, "Or would that be weird?"

"It would be a little weird, but I'd be fine with talking," Dirk said, finally saying actual words to the human boy.

"Oh, so you can talk! I was starting to think that you were mute or something. Anywho, I'm Jake." The human, Jake, held his hand out for Dirk to shake. Smiling softly, he took it.

"Nice to meet you, Jake. I'm Dirk, Dirk Strider. Now, before we get to anything else, there is an important question I need to ask; are you going to kill me?"

Jake's eyes widened in surprise underneath his glasses. "Dickens no! What gave you that idea? I am trying to help you after all."

*"I know, but I didn't know if you were just helping me to get me into a false sense of security or something."

Jake's face became very serious as he continued to cut the ropes. "Mr. Strider, I can assure you that I would NEVER even consider doing a thing like that." 

Dirk was still a bit wary, but decided to let it go for now. "Cool."

There was an awkward pause, the only sounds coming from the rolling waves and Jake's knife cutting the ropes.  
"Hey, Jake?"

"Yes, Dirk?"

"What should we talk about now?"

Laughing nervously as he finished sawing through another rope, Jake replied,

"I have absolutely no friggin' idea."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAANNNNNDDDD I'm back. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've had a minor loss of ideas (which is why this chapter is so shitty and why I haven't posted anything for a while) and I've been a bit busy, but I'll try to get chapter 5 up much more quickly than chapter 4. I'm open for suggestions, should you guys have any, and that's all for this update!! PCHOOOOO!!!!!
> 
> (Hope you guys liked it. I also hope you know I'm not as irritating as I was when I wrote the old ANs. See you next time.)
> 
> -CC


	5. Awkward Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our lovers-to-be spend several minutes forcing up conversation so that they don't make things awkward. 
> 
> (It's very awkward. Both the conversation and the writing.)

"I have absolutely no friggin' idea."

Jake was nervous. He tried not to show it but he wasn't very good at that. After all, who would be after talking to a MERMAN? Other than other merpeople, of course.

Dirk smiled kindly. "Well, what do you talk about with your friends?"

"Uh, well, I never r-really had any friends," Jake stuttered nervously as he continued to cut the ropes.

Dirk frowned and asked, "Why? You seem pretty nice."

"Well, I kinda grew up alone on an island with just my family, so there wasn't really any chance of me meeting anyone."

"Tell me about your family."

"There isn't much to tell, really; it was always just my younger sister, Jade, my Grandma, and I. We all lived alone on an island, until not that long ago, when my Grandma decided that it would be a good idea for us to move, so Jade and I could get some friends."

Dirk nodded slowly, and jumped in surprise when one of the ropes released him a little bit more from under him, as Jake had finished cutting that rope. 

Jake, not wanting any awkward silence, questioned, "Well, what about you. What about _your_ family?"

"M-my family?"

Jake nodded.

Dirk sighed. "Well, there used to be three of us; my brothers, Bro and Dave, and me. My parents left when Dave and I were really young, so Bro raised us. Then, one day, he said he was going out to settle some 'unfinished business', but he never came back. So I raised Dave from there. We're pretty good, other than the extremely rare run in with he law."

"Why do you get in trouble with the law?" Jake asked nervously, pausing mid-rope-cut. He whispered, "Did you kill anyone?"

"No, no, don't worry, we never killed anyone and we don't plan to," Dirk reassured. "It's never for bad things; We just sometimes see a small crime, like a thief stealing something or maybe someone started a fight involving a knife, so we, usually 'I' though, try and fix it ourselves before the authorities show up. And usually, we're able to settle shit down before they get to the scene of the crime."

"'Usually'?"

"Well, today the royal guards caught us mid-fight and took us to-" Dirk shuddered in fear at the thought of- "the Queen's Palace."

Jake finished sawing through another rope (there were only a few left) and stared at the merman with curiosity. "From your reaction, I'm assuming the Queen's Palace is a pretty bad place to be.

The merman nodded. "Unless you're a noble, the princess, or the Queen herself, yes, yes it is. She has all these rules, and pretty much all crimes are punishable by death. That includes 'fighting with another merperson'."

Jake's eyes widened and he once again stopped mid-saw.

Dirk chuckled at his expression. "No, don't worry, I'm fine. I'm friends with the princess, and she's usually able to get the innocent, and her friends, out of these situations. She wasn't able to save the thief though. I assume his being executed as we speak. Poor guy. Probably just needed an extra sand-dollar or two."

The human nodded, making a mental note to be scared shitless of this Queen of his. _Queen=Death. That isn't so hard to remember, is it?_

"Your Queen sounds like a bitch."

"That's because she is."

"Wow, that sucks."

"It really does."

At that point, it seemed like all hope for a decent, non-awkward conversation was lost. Luckily, Jake was finally sawing through the last rope, and once it was finally cut, Dirk was able to slide effortlessly into the ocean.

He sighed in relief. "Oh god, that feels good. My tail was starting to get dry." He turned to Jake. "Thanks for freeing me, and, you know, NOT killing me."

Jake grinned. "No problem, mate. I'd hate to think that I'd hurt an innocent person, or merperson in your case, on purpose." He mentally added, _Or should I say Porpoise. No, I really shouldn't say that._

Dirk turned his head and looked out at the ocean. "I should probably get back to my cave. Dave is probably wondering where the hell I am."

Jake opened his mouth to ask something, but Dirk cut him off.

"Yes, I live in a cave. It's not as comfortable as one of your human houses with your human beds, but it's still home."

Jake's mouth drifted shut for a moment, his question having been answered. Then he stated, "Yeah, well, I'd better head home, too. Jade and Grandma must be worried, and it's nearly lunchtime!"

Dirk groaned. "Ah, yes. **Food.** If you're a merperson, that means an endless supply of raw fish, which, by the way, tastes like shit. I've always wondered what human food tasted like..." He trailed off.

Jake gave him a look. "You want me to bring you human food, don't you?"

"Yes, that would be really fucking nice."

"Okay, I'll bring you food, BUT," He added a lot of emphasis on the 'but', "in exchange, you'll have to answer some questions I have about you and your species, deal?" He stuck out his hand for Dirk to shake.

The merman looked like he was thinking about it in his head for a bit, then grabbed the human's hand tightly, smirking a little. "Deal." They shook each other's hand firmly, and as they pulled their hands away, Dirk added, "Now, you know you can't tell anyone about this, right?"

"Of course, I know better than to blab on about this! Who would even believe me? They'd all think I've gone mad! And I don't think you'd tell anyone and risk 'punishment by death'."

Dirk chuckled. "Yeah.... So, how does tomorrow at noon sound?"

"It's alright with me."

"Good. See you tomorrow." Dirk prepared to dive back into the water.

"WAIT!"

"What?"

"How do you guys keep track of time?"

The orange-tailed merman hesitated, then answered, "It's really complicated. You'll find out tomorrow. Bye." And with that, he dove down into the lagoon and swam away.

Jake watched his orange tail swim off until he could barely see him anymore. "Bye," he muttered under his breath, even though he knew his new friend couldn't hear him. Sighing heavily, he paddled back to shore and put his clothes, shoes, and guns back on. Looking out at the ocean one last time, he left the cave unwillingly.

He walked slowly along the beach, occasionally looking back out at the open sea, wondering if he could spot anymore merpeople. When he was about halfway home, he then heard someone yelling something to someone. He reverted his gaze to right in front of him, and saw a human figure running towards him, with a small white animal figure, presumably a dog, running right beside it. And then he heard what the figure was yelling.

"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!! YOU NEED TO GET HOME RIGHT NOW!!! IT'S IMPORTANT!!!!" 

_Jade? Is that her?_ He wondered. Worried, Jake ran towards the figure as fast as he could, fearing the worst.

"WHAT IS IT?!?!" He yelled back.

"GRANDMA MADE US TACOS!!!" 

Jake rolled his eyes irritated, grateful that nothing bad happened but pissed at his sister for getting him slightly worked up. Still, he did love his Grandma's tacos. She claimed the recipe was passed down through the family, but both Jake and Jade had seen the Google search 'delicious taco recipe' on her computer. (Jake had figured out how to use some old computers that washed ashore on their island, and so they all had computers with decent internet access.)

"I'M COMING!!!" He raced towards her and the white figure, who was undoubtably Bec. As he got close enough to see the sweat shimmering on her face, he skidded to a stop in the sand. Jade, however, was unable to stop in time and crashed into her adoptive brother, causing them both to fall into the sand and their glasses to fly off their faces.

Jake pushed his sister off him and rubbed his eyes. Without his glasses, everything was kinda blurry. He looked around the sand for the emerald green blur that was his glasses.

"Jake!" Jade sounded worried, and Jake didn't blame her; while he was only slightly blind without his glasses, Jade couldn't see jack shit without them.

"Don't worry Jade. I'll find your blasted glasses. Just stay calm." Jake reassured as his hand touched something that felt like glasses. Grinning, he picked them up and slid them on. 

They just made everything even blurrier.

He was confused until he realized, _oh, these are JADE'S glasses._

He quickly slid them off and handed them to the blur that was his sister. Unfortunately he couldn't see, so she couldn't take them from him. Right when he was about to say something, a white blur snatched the glasses from his hand and dropped them on her lap.

"Hmm?" She picked them up and slid them on. "Oh, that's better! Good boy, Bec. Hey, there are your glasses, Jake!" Jake felt something being slid into his hand-his glasses.

He slid them on. "Ah, yes. That more like it. Race you home!!" Jake stumbled to his feet and took off running. He heard Jade yell after him, "Hey!! No fair!!" He chuckled to himself and kept going. _Hell yes,_ he thought, _tacos..._

 

Unbeknownst to him, however, a man watched him from a farther distance on the beach with binoculars. He snarled as he watched Jake race off, with Jade and Bec not far behind. "I got my eye on you, kid," he said to no one in particular, removing the binoculars from his face.

"You'd better watch your back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLOOOO!!!!!! I'm BA-ACK!!!! Oooooh, mystery man has entered the story!!! I wonder what will happen!!!! I hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter of this piece of shit I call a fanfiction. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Well, that's all for this update. Until next time, PCHOOOOO!!!!!!!
> 
> (As per usual, sorry about my past self, I'll try to update again soon, see you guys next time.)
> 
> -CC


	6. Startling Discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dirk and Jake learn more about each other, but other things are discovered by other people....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long since I wrote this I really need to keep working on the rest of this stupid story on Wattpad but of course I don't because Wattpad sucks. It's a good thing I still have like 15 chapters I've already written that I need to post. And by a good thing I mean I'm losing control of my life. Anyway, enough about me; I hope you guys enjoy this.

The next morning, Jake woke up bright and early. Actually, that's a lie. He woke up bright, but not until, according to his clock, 11:30, which is not that early. He sat up on his mattress and looked around a bit. His room was mostly put together, aside from a few boxes here and there, and he noticed his mattress was in an actual bed frame. 

_What the hell happened?_ He thought as stretched his arms and yawned loudly. And suddenly it dawned on him.

After lunch yesterday, he, Jade and Grandma spent the rest of the day putting the house together. They worked hard all day, Grandma got Chinese take-out for dinner, and around midnight, they all agreed they'd do the last few boxes in the morning because it was so damn late.

Rubbing his eye with one hand, he felt around his bedside table for his glasses. Upon feeling them, he picked them up and slid them on his face. _Today, today, what was so important about today? It at the edge of my mind- OH! Yes, that's right. I'm meeting with Dirk later on!_ Jake thought as he rose from his bed and towards his box of clothes, a grin plastered on his face. 

He changed into a black tank top with his signature skull on it, a pair of black short shorts, his boots, and, to add a touch of class, a black bow tie. He noticed a tall oblong mirror beside the door, and stared at himself, wanting to look really nice, although he wasn't sure why.

Pleased with his look, he grabbed his empty forest green backpack from his shelf, shoved his guns, holster, and knife inside, and quietly walked down the stairs, trying to avoid his family, at least for the time being. Jake snuck into the kitchen, constantly checking his surroundings. He quickly opened his backpack and pulled the fridge door ajar. He grabbed two bottles of soda, one lemon-lime flavor and the other orange flavor, and shoved them into his bag. Next, closing the fridge door, he reached over to the pantry and pulled out a big bag of Cheetos, stuffing that into the bag as well.

"Whatcha doin' with all our Cheetos?"

Jake jumped and spun around to face Jade, who was crossing her arms and eyeing her brother suspiciously.

"Oh, um, hi, Jade! I wasn't expecting to see you there," Jake said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly and dropping the backpack to the floor.

"You didn't answer my question."

Jake stumbled nervously, "Oh, yes! Um, I w-was planning to go on an adventure.....and the adventure is going to take me all day so....I'm t-taking food."

Jade narrowed her eyes, not buying it at all.

"Well, so long, then!" Jake grabbed his backpack from the floor and raced from the house before Jade could ask any more questions. As he ran off, he could hear her calling, "JAKE!!!!!! WHAT THAT FUCK?!?!?" But he kept running, not stopping until he saw the familiar cave.

\----------

Meanwhile, in an underwater cave, Dirk woke up with a yawn. He took a deep breath of water, and let it out, grinning. Today was the day Jake brought him human food! Finally something other than fish!

He sat up, stretching his arms out, and looked around the cave. Aside from the fish pile and Dave, who was sleeping soundly on the floor with his rock pillow, it was completely empty.

Smirking, he silently swam out of the cave and made his way upwards. It was hard to tell what time it was without looking at the sun's position (not directly at it, though; that's stupid, and he could end up blind like Dave's friend, Terezi) and it was even harder to do so from underwater. 

Dirk surfaced and looked up. Judging by the position of the sun, he could assume it was about 11:45ish in the morning, leaving only about 15 minutes for him to get ready and head for the lagoon. Sighing, he dove back down and started heading for the lagoon when he heard something calling.

"DIRRRRRRRK!!!!"

Dirk spun around and saw Dave sitting at the edge of the cave, a pissed-off expression splashed across his face.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOING?!?!?"

Rolling his eyes from beneath his shades (which he had been sleeping in (yes, he was sleeping in his shades)), Dirk yelled back, "I'M MEETING WITH SOMEONE!!! JUST GO BACK TO SLEEP!!!!" And with that, not wanting to be followed, he swam away quickly.

It didn't take long to reach the lagoon. Once he had reached where the water met the rocky floor of the cave, he propped his elbows of the rock and began to wait. 

It wasn't very long before the dark-haired, green-eyed, British-accented boy came in, looking nice and wearing some sort of pack on his back. Dirk wasn't sure of what it was called, but he was sure that the human food was inside it. Remembering his manners, he greeted, "Hey, jake."

Jake grinned. "Hello, ol' chap! I brought you some human food to try!" He reached into his back-pack (that's what Dirk was going to call it for now) and pulled out a large orange bag that read C-H-E-E-T-O-S and two bottles, one filled with an orange liquid, and the other with a green liquid. He walked over and set all three objects next to the merman. "Take your pick."

Dirk cautiously moved his hand towards the bag of "CHEETOS". He gently took it in his hands and inspected it. On it, there was a feline-like creature riding a blue four-wheeled device with its hind legs. He wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling this stuff was going to taste a HELL of a lot better than raw fish. He carefully opened the bag and pulled out an orange puffy thingy. Shrugging, he popped the puff into his mouth.

And then he proceeded to shove about twenty more into his mouth.

Chuckling, Jake picked up the green bottle, twisted off the cap, and took a sip as Dirk continued to shove Cheetos into his mouth. "You like those Cheetos, don't you?"

Mouth filled, Dirk nodded happily.

Jake chuckled again. And then his face grew slightly more serious. "Okay, brought you human food, now you need to answer some of my questions, okay?"

Dirk nodded and swallowed. "Okay, but first can I have some of that orange stuff?"

"Sure." Jake twisted the cap off the bottle of orange soda and handed it to him. Grabbing it, Dirk mimicked what Jake had done before and brought the bottle to his lips and swallowing the liquid that filled his mouth.

Mmmmm, he thought. This is pretty good. "Alright," he said once he had swallowed. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, what is your society like? Are there upper and lower class people?" 

Popping another Cheeto into his mouth, Dirk replied, "Well, it's kind of complicated. We have this sort of system where your rank in society is determined by the color of your blood. The colors range from a rusty red to a fuchsia pink on a sort of hemospectrum, red being lower class and fuchsia being upper class. And although our tails usually match our blood color, there are exceptions. For example my brother and I have bright red blood, like human, and it's not on the hemospectrum. We're mutants, and we've had to hide our blood color for years to avoid being killed."

Grimacing a little, Jake muttered, "Woah nelly, that sounds like a bunch of dadblasted malarkey."

"Trust me, it could be worse; I could have been caught, and then I would probably be dead. Anyway, would it be okay if I asked you some questions?"

"I don't see why not. Shoot."

"What kind of shoes are those? They're not sandals, nor flip flops, nor sneakers, and I only know what those are because I've heard humans use them before."

"They're called boots," Jake answered, "and how exactly have you heard humans use those words before?"

"This isn't the first time I've been to this cave. It's a good place to clear your head, you know?" Dirk asked.

Jake took another sip of his soda, a clear dribble of the liquid running down his chin. _Oh,_ Dirk realized, _the drink isn't green, so it must be the color if that container, a bottle if I'm not mistaken._

"I completely understand. There's nothing better than being able to sit alone, with a bit of silence. Quite relaxing."

"Yep."

There was a short silence.

"So." Jake broke the silence. "Do merpeople have a form of currency? For example, how would someone buy something?"

Dirk stared at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world, even though they both knew that he didn't know any better and was simply curious.

"They're called sand-dollars."

Jake stifled a giggle, and Dirk was unsure why, but he simply decided to let it go. He asked, "So what kind of things to humans do for fun?"

Jake pulled a Cheeto from the bag and chewed it up, thinking of an answer. when he swallowed, he answered, "We do all sorts if things. We play games, and talk to each other, and have parties, and all sorts of stuff that I can't currently remember."

"Sounds nice."

"It would be, if I had ever done any of those things."

Dirk's eyes widened from beneath his shades. "Are you saying you've never had fun?"

Scoffing, Jake retorted, "I most certainly am NOT!" Calming down a bit, he added, "I've just never spent much time with anyone other than my sister and grandma, that's all. We DID live isolated on an island for several years of our lives, so you can't really blame us for not having many friends."

Dirk sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're ri-"

Dirk was cut off by two very loud simultaneous screams from two very different people.

"JAKE!!!!!!"

"DIRK!!!!!!"

Both teens whipped their heads around to look behind them. Behind Jake was Jade, wearing a bright green sundress, matching sandals, and a look of horror, confusion, surprise painted across her face. And behind Dirk was Dave, a similar expression on his face.

The older teen turned to face the older mermaid, and vice-versa. Then they both began yelling the same stuff at each other at the same time.

"I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T TELL ANYONE!!!!! I DIDN'T TELL ANYONE!!!! THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY HERE??????? HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW!!!!!"

Both boys face-palmed with both hands in frustration, causing an amazing **FACEPALM 4X COMBO.**

"Well, this is a bloody fine mess we've gotten ourselves into, isn't it?" Jake groaned.

Dirk sighed deeply. 

"Yes, yes it is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, that's the end of that chapter, hope you all liked it. I've decided to stop copy-and-pasting my old notes from Wattpad because no one deserves to hear how irritating I was when I was 15. Hopefully I'll post chapters more frequently, but if I don't, just yell at me in the comments or something. Also, I made a tumblr (closeted-calliope), so if you want updates on fics or just bug me with questions and stuff, maybe check me out! That's all for now! See you guys next time!!!
> 
> -CC


	7. A Fuck Ton of Explaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which things are explained to a couple of peeping toms while an unsuspecting villain from a few chapters ago is revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have an excuse for not posting; I'm just super lazy. Happy holidays to all you nerds who celebrate stuff and I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

"HEY!!"

Jake and Dirk's heads snapped around to face Jade, who was looking a little more than just pissed off. "Could SOMEBODY please explain to me what's going on?"

"Yeah," Dave added, "and if I don't get an explanation soon, SOMEONE'S gonna get bitch-slapped."

Jake sighed heavily, running his fingers through his messy black locks.

This was going to take a while.

**\------(time jump about 15 minutes because CC is hella lazy )-------**

Jade and Dave stared at the older boys in astonishment. They had just finished explaining exactly what had happened, in exquisitely great detail.

"So let me get this straight," Jade started. "Yesterday, Dirk got caught in a fishing net and Jake found him and set him free, promising he'd bring him food today at noon. He and Dirk both snuck out of our homes, but not without being caught by me and.....Dave was it?" She asked, looking for assurance. 

Dave didn't reply; he simply gave a slight nod, being too ironic for words.

Jade continued on with her recap. 

"So then the two of you came here and did stuff and then got caught by Dave and I?"

"Yes, that more or less explains what has happened over the past few days," Jake answered, a little surprised that she was able to take in all that so quickly. He himself was barely able understand what happened, and those events had actually happened to him!

"Well that's all fine and dandy," Dave interrupted, "but I made plans with Terezi, and I'm not just gonna leave her hanging like that. Later." And with that, he dove under the surface of the water and swam away. 

The remaining three teenagers watched, having nothing better to do. Wanting to break the awkwardness that hung in the air around them like a thick fog, Jake grabbed the bag of Cheetos and held it out to Jade. "Want some?"

"Sure," she replied, smiling as she grabbed a handful of the chip-puff-things and shoved them into her mouth. Once she had swallowed the mush, she asked, "What do you think of the human world so far, Dirk?"

Dirk tool a sip of his soda. "It doesn't seem half bad," he answered after swallowing his drink. "I mean, the food doesn't seem too bad; it's much better than raw fish. And you don't have to worry about being killed 24/7, so that's another plus. From what I've seen on the beaches and boardwalks around here, you humans have all sorts of cool, different technology, which is also awesome. This place seems pretty sweet."

The three teenager continued to talk about their worlds and their similarities and differences, unaware that they were being watched from afar.....

**(POV change: Be the creeper guy from chapter 5 (because I've lost what I was doing for this particular part. :/ )**

The man held his binoculars to his face and looked into the cave from behind a large rock, an irritated look scarred on his face. Yeah, those kids were still there: The girl, the human boy, and the merman. It was obvious that the guy in the ocean was the merman: the man had seen his bright orange tail the day before. And that man was determined to get that fish-boy at any cost. 

The creeper man took off his binoculars and handed them a taller, equally irritated man. "Take a look at this, Droog," the smaller man said.

The taller man, Droog, took the binoculars and used them to look at the teens. "Why are you stalking those kids? They look pretty average to me," he complained. 

The smaller man scowled. "These aren't your average kids!" he spat. "See that one in the water?"

"Yeah. What about 'im?"

"He's a merman."

Droog removed the binoculars from his face and glared at the smaller man. "Spades, that was the dumbest thing I have ever heard come out of your mouth, and believe me: you've said a lot of dumb shit."

Spades growled, "Well, ya have to don't get all smart with me." He grabbed the binoculars from his comrade's hands and brought them to his own eyes. The three teens were still talking; about what, who knew, but the boy with the dark hair was using large hand guestures to explain something, while the other two watched him.

Droog stared at his partner through slitted eyes. He had had enough of Spades' bull shit. "Spades, c'mon, it's about time for us to be getting back to the boat." He grabbed the binoculars from his hands (much to Spades' irritation), and began to walk away. But before he could get very far, Spades grabbed one of his sleeves and yanked him back to their hiding spot behind the large rock.

"YOU CAN'T GO YET!!!! THEY'RE GONNA SEE YOU!!!"

Droog pulled his arm from Spades' grasp. "You're delusional. That kid isn't a merman. Merpeople. Don't. Exist."

Spades rolled his eyes and pointed at the binoculars in his partner's hands. "Could ya just look one more time?"

Completely fed up, but not wanting to hear more crap from Spades, Droog unwillingly did so.

The dark-haired kids were walking away from the blonde kid in the water, waving in a sign of departure. the kid in the water waved back, smiling, then dove into the water, a large orange tail flipping up where his legs should be before disappearing underneath the water.

Droog raised his eyebrows. He hadn't been expecting Spades to be right.

He looked over to see Spades looking him, smirking ever so slightly. Droog sighed. "Okay, so he really was a merman. What's so important about that?" 

"Imagine the things we could do with a merperson. We could sell 'im, sell parts of 'im, make 'im tell us where the other merpeople are, sell those merpeople... The possibilities are endless, and we're gonna be rich." Spades smirk had grown significantly, and he knew Droog couldn't dislike an idea like this.

And he was right. Droog had a small smile on his face as he asked, "Shouldn't we go back to the boat and make some plans?" 

Spades smirk grew into a grin as he began to walk away. "I like the way you think, Droog."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this isn't the BEST chapter I've ever written but I was like 14 so I'm not gonna stress out too much. Anyway, thanks for reading. Check out my tumblr closeted-calliope for updates and stuff because I'm desperate for attention ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. See you guys next time. 
> 
> -CC


	8. Merfriends & Shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some insight into the world of the merpeople.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm still just transferring this fic from my old Wattpad, I would just like everyone to know that I wrote this chapter when I was like 15, so it might suck a little. But it's mostly lore and stuff so it doesn't really matter. Enjoy.

It had been about a week since Jake and Dirk had first met. Each day they would go to the cave and talk, sometimes about their societies and lifestyles, sometimes about just random stuff, and sometimes they would just have fun in the water.

Jake was reminded that the world of merpeople was not all the great stuff you'd hear in a fairy tale; Their queen, her Imperious Condescension (AKA the Sea Bitch), was a horrible dictator that ruled over the entire underwater kingdom of Alternia. She enjoyed spilling as much blood as possible by making every crime punishable by death, even the small ones. And the merfolk survived only on raw fish, which everyone could agree TASTED LIKE SHIT. 

It wasn't completely horrible, however.

A couple years back, a group of teenagers found a coral reef hidden from both the royal guards and the humans. They called the beautiful reef "Skaia" and now it was the place where teens could just hang out and not worry about death by the Condesce. Dirk and Dave spent a lot of time their with their friends, who seemed pretty cool to Jake.

There was Terezi, the blind legislacerator , Nepeta, the shipper cat(fish) mermaid, John, the nerdy merman that liked pulling pranks on everyone and some human guy called "Nick Cage", Rose, a sea witch with several tentacles instead of a tail, Kanaya, Rose's fashion-forward girlfriend, Feferi, the sea princess, Eridan, the noble-blooded douchebag the kept trying to get in a relationship with Feferi, Sollux, the lisping nerd that hated Eridan and had cool telekinetic powers, Aradia, Sollux's ex that liked adventure and death, and Vriska, the spider(crab) bitch.

Jake wanted to meet them all, be he couldn't for two reasons: 1. He wasn't a merman and couldn't go to the depths of the ocean without drowning, and 2. ONE OF THEM COULD TELL THE QUEEN AND THEN THEY'D ALL BE SCREWED. 

Or at least that's what Dirk said.

(Jake knew he was probably overreacting, but it was better to be too careful than not careful enough.)

On the other hand, Dirk learned that the human world, though fascinating and different, wasn't exactly 'perfect', either; Sure, they had cool technologies, most of which couldn't be used underwater (humans used a thin material called "paper" to write notes and letters but it fell apart in water) but the actual creatures were often total assholes. They'd judge and harass a person by their skin color, gender, sexuality, race, or religion, sometimes going so far as to killing them. People would try to get help from the authorities (called, as Jake said, "Cops"), but they could be just as bad as the common people. 

Of course, not every person was bad, like Jake and Jade and their grandma. In fact, a large majority of the humans in their small beach town was rather nice, according to Jade, although there were exceptions. 

Dirk had just woken up and was about to eat a fish for breakfast then race off to see Jake when a familiar voice filled the cave.

"Going to see your boyfriend?" 

Dirk turned around to see Dave sitting up, eyebrows raised in amusement.

Dirk rolled his eyes as he grabbed a fish from the fish pile. "Jake's not my boyfriend," he said, biting the head off the fish and then spitting it out because the heads tasted the worst.

"You never answered my question."

Dirk scowled, adjusting his shades as he took another bite of fish. (Yes he did sleep with them on.) "As a matter of fact, no. I was going to head over to Skaia to see if anyone we knew was there."

Dave smirked. "Why? Was Jake busy?" He asked in a mocking tone.

Dirk glared at him and threw the remainder of his dead fish at his younger brother.

"First of all, I'm going because it's been a week since Jake and Jade came, and not once during any of those days did I go to hang out with our friends. And second of all, and this is totally unrelated," he said, a blush creeping up on his face, "he said he was going to go explore that beach city with Jade."

Dave opened his mouth to make some snide reply, but Dirk quickly added, "The guy's been in this place for a week now and he still hasn't made any other friends other than us so don't go turning this into another 'I'm-totally-obsessed-with-a-guy-and-the-only-reason-I'm-not-with-him-right-now-is-because-he's-fucking-busy' thing."

Yes, it had happened once before, but they never talked about that.

Dave gave his brother a look. "Whatever you say, bro," he said, clearly unconvinced by Dirk's words, but not pushing further. He took the half-eaten fish off of his head (where it had landed), and began to leave the cave.

"I'm gonna head for Skaia now, see if Terezi's there. Later."

Dirk watched as his brother left the cave, his red tail swishing behind him.  
Sighing, he took a moment to fix his hair (hard to do underwater), grabbed his half-eaten fish and swam out. 

On his way to Skaia, he stopped by a large, dark hole that probably went down for miles, if one could see the bottom. Taking one final bite of the fish, nearly gagging at the taste, Dirk dropped his remaining breakfast down into the abyss, never to see the light of day again.

The large hole was known simply as _**THE HOLE**_ , and was where everyone dropped their garbage and food scraps.   
No one knew much about what happened in the hole, except that everything and everyone that went down into the hole never came out, with one exception.

Andrew Hussie.

No one knew exactly how he did it, nor what he had seen, because he never told anyone. He had gone into the hole several times to do God knows what and come out perfectly unscathed. But regardless of his mysterious ways, the whole community could agree on one thing: He was a total asshole. 

Dirk had been so busy thinking of the "Community Asshole", he barely noticed that he was nearing the coral reef known as Skaia.

Swirls of blue and white coral were twisted around a large gathering of rocks. Several teenagers of different ages, skin/tail/blood colors, and social ranks were scattered around. They were all talking and looked pretty happy. Dirk swam over to the part of the reef that looked kind of like someone had taken the coral and sculpted it into a giant dildo. 

(The shit that washed into the ocean these days was ridiculous.)

There, a small gathering of mermaids and mermen huddled into a loose circle. Dave was among them, his face sporting a small smirk.

Dirk swam over to the group. 

"Hey guys. What's up?"

All conversation that had been going in beforehand ceased almost immediately, everyone staring at Dirk. 

He raised an eyebrow.

"What's going on?"

They small group, aside from Dave, began whispering to each other. Dave simply looked away, his cheeks dusted lightly with pink.

No one spoke for a minute, then a small mermaid with an olive green tail, short, dark brown, curly hair, and deep tan skin, known as Nepeta Leijon, spoke up nervously.

"Dave said that....you're going out....with....."

She hesitated for a moment before whispering,

".....a human."

Dirk's eyes widened and his head snapped around to look at Dave. Dave, however, was no longer their, and could be seen swimming away, not wanting to be brutally murdered by his brother.

Dirk face-palmed 2X COMBO and turned to the merpeople, his friends.

"You didn't hear anything, and you're not gonna tell anyone, got it?"

The group of teenagers nodded. One of them, Terezi to be exact, asked, "Can we meet later and talk about it? This is risky business we're talking about here."

Dirk stared at her for a moment before quickly replying, "Fine. but not now, I'm busy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go kill Dave."

And with that, he swam off, ready to pound his brother to a bloody pulp, then throw him down _**THE HOLE.**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so yeah I haven't updated in like a million years, sorry. And it's not like I'm actually being original or whatever, I'm just transferring this over from my Wattpad. But in all seriousness, I'm gonna try to update this thing more often do I can actually fucking finish it. See y'all next time!!!
> 
> -CC


	9. New Friends & More Shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I literally wrote this years ago so who FUCKIGN knows what this chapter is about

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still literally just copying and pasting chapters from my wattpad so enjoy or whatever

Jake calmly walked along the boardwalk, staring blankly at everything and everyone that passed him. His sister had convinced him to come with her to the city the day before.

"You've been here a week, Jake! You can't spend ALL your time hanging out with your boyfriend!!!" She had said.

Jake had retaliated by saying that "Dirk isn't my boyfriend" and that "He probably doesn't even like boys". But regardless, he agreed to go with her.

So here he was, walking along, doing nothing in particular. Jade skipped ahead of him, grinning and looking around, as thought she were looking for someone. Jake simply followed her, not knowing where else to go.

Suddenly, Jade stopped and let out a high-pitched squeal.

"KARKAT!!!!"

She then ran off, leaving Jake. 

Confused, Jake raced after his sister, not wanting to get lost on his first day actually in the city.

Jade was running towards a boy about her age, with blackish-brown hair that was all messed up, light gray swim shorts with bright red stripes down the side, a black T-shirt with the Cancer astrological sign on it in a gray darker than his shorts, gray flip-flops, and a look on his face that was a mixture of disapproval and surprise.

As Jake caught up with his sister, the boy could be heard saying, "Oh, GODDAMMIT!!!" just as Jade jumped on him, hugging him tightly. 

"Hi, Karkat!!!!"

"Ugh, hi Jade. Could you get the fuck off me? I can't fucking breathe after you knocked all the air out of me," The boy, Karkat, complained, pushing the girl away from him.

Jade pouted playfully. "You know, you don't have to be so mean all the time, Mr Crabbypants."

Karkat glared at her.

"Don't call me Mr Crabbypants."

He looked up at Jake. "Who the hell is this fuckass?"

Jade frowned and punched his arm.

HARD.

"GAH!!!"

Karkat nearly fell over from the force of the punch, not expecting some one as thin and weak-looking as Jade to pack such a hard punch.

As he regained his balance, rubbing his arm where Jade punched him, the girl smiled as if nothing had happened and pointed at Jake. "Karkat, this is my brother that I was telling you about yesterday, Jake. Jake, this is Karkat." 

Karkat stared at Jake, and Jake uncomfortably stared back. Unsure of what to do, Jake stuck out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Karkat."

Karkat wordlessly took his hand, gave it a firm shake, then let it go as if someone had shot him with a jolt of electricity.

There was an awkward pause that felt like a year, but was really only about 7 seconds.

Jade piped up, "So how's your brother, Karkat? What was his name again? Kranki? Kronus?"

Karkat rolled his gray eyes. "His name is Kankri, and he's sill annoying as fuck. I swear, if I hear his voice one more time, I'm gonna- OH SHIT!!! Quick, hide me! He's coming this way!!

The boy quickly pulled Jake in front of him, making an effective shield, as Jake was both taller and had a stockier build than Karkat's. Jake, surprised, didn't bother moving him away.

As the Cancer had said, an young man, looking about 16 years of age, came walking over. He look a lot like Karkat, with similar hair and eyes, although he looked more matured than his brother. He wore a bright red turtleneck sweater ( _How can he be wearing that in this heat?_ Jake had thought), black knee shorts (you know, those shorts that go to your knees?) with a waistband and cuffs that matched his sweater, and equally matching red flip-flops.

He came up to Jake and asked, "Pardon my intrusion on whatever conversation you may have been having, but have you, by any chance, seen my younger brother, Karkat?"

Jake put his hands on his hips. "Perhaps." He could feel the boy he was shielding pinch his back lightly. "What does he look like?"

Sweater Guy, or Kankri, as Karkat said, replied, "Well, he looks like me, only he's shorter, and wearing lots of gray. Have you seen him, by any chance?"

Shaking his head, Jake shrugged. "No, I haven't seen anyone of that description, sorry."

Both brothers sighed; Karkat's was a one of relief, and Kankri's was one of frustration. And fortunately, the elder didn't notice the younger' sigh due to the volume of his own.

"Thank you for your time, sir," Kankri said. "And if it wouldn't bother you much, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know if you find him."

"Will do."

"Goodbye," and with that said, he turned around, and continued walking along the boardwalk, looking for someone he nearly found.

Karkat peered around Jake's shoulder. 

"Is he gone? Oh, thank jegus, he is." 

He pushed Jake away, muttering a quiet, "Thanks," under his breathe, like it was hard for him to say.

The Brit smiled warmly. "You're welcome, ol' chap!" He replied happily, clapping the younger boy on the back.

Karkat flinched and angrily turned to face him.

"Do. Not. TOUCH ME!!!!" He growled, poking a finger at the taller boy's chest.

Jake shrugged, smiling apologetically. "Sorry."

Karkat looked around a bit, like he was looking to see if Kankri had seen him. His eyes widened as he saw a tall, muscular boy about his age, with cracked rectangular sunglasses and long black hair tied in a ponytail. "Oh, SHIT," He muttered, hiding behind Jake again.

"Who is that guy?" Jade whispered confusedly to Karkat as the muscular man approached.

Karkat didn't have time to answer as the guy came up to Jake and said, ""I need to speak to the person hiding behind you."

"DAMMIT!!!" Karkat cried as he came out from behind Jake. He glared at the taller teen. "What the fuck do you want, Equius?" 

Equius pulled a small hand towel from the pocket of his black shorts and began wiping his face. "Your brother wishes to speak with you. I STRONGLY suggest that you go see him," He said, putting a lot of emphasis on 'strongly'.

"No way, dude. He's just gonna make me sit through another one of his goddamn lectures again about how I 'triggered' someone," Karkat grouched, sing finger quotations.

Equius adjusted his sunglasses as he said, "If you do not come with me to see him, I will tell these people that thing you told me the other day."

Karkat squinted his eyes. "Equius, that would be pointless, because they already know about that thing! In fact, SHE (he pointed at Jade, who glared at him furiously) was the one who told me about them!"

"Very well then. If you won't stop...horsing around, then I'll have to make you go myself." Equius cracked his knuckles.

Karkat took a step back, but continued to run his mouth.

"Oh really? And how the hell do you plan on doing that?"

Without another word, the strong teen grabbed the Cancer's arm and began dragging him off, most likely to wherever Kankri was. As he did, Karkat was trying to escape, letting out a colorful string of language as he did, but to no avail.

With all the drama out of the way, Jake turned to look at his sister, who smiled nervously.

"What did you tell him?"

"Welllllllllllll....." She dragged out, scratching the back of her head, "I kinda.........sorta.........mighta.......told him."

Jake's eyes widened.

"About what?"

Jade hesitated before answering in a voice barely audible.

"About the merpeople."

There was a tense pause between the siblings. Jake stares at her, eyes hard with anger and surprise, and Jade still smiling nervously.

"Jade."

She winced.

"Yes?"

"Run."

The older brother then began to chase his sister all the way off the boardwalk and back to the house, too pissed for words the entire time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it. I promise, the chapters get better, you just gotta pull through the shit I wrote when I was 15. Like the later chapters are good, or at least better than this. See y'all next time!!! 
> 
> -CC

**Author's Note:**

> Helloooo!!! This is the author, Closeted Calliope, speaking. I really hope you people like the first chapter, despite there not being any merpeople. Yet. Please let me know what you guys think of my story, because it lets me know that people actually read it and want me to continue. Thanks for reading this chapter, I promise there will be merpeople in the next one, and I'll see you next time. PCHOOOOO!!!!
> 
> (That was a copy-and-paste of my note from my Wattpad for this story. So yeah. Hope you all like it. If you want more check it out on Wattpad, I have more finished on there. So yeah, see ya later.)
> 
> -CC


End file.
